This is my first post here. As a desktop user with good Intel SSD experiences, I naturally decided upon an Intel product for reliability and performance as an upgrade to my MSi Windpad 110W Tablet. SPECS.

Under Windows 8 Consumer Build - the SSD causes the OS to hang and become unbootable after initial clean install (once any device driver install or Windows Update is attempted). Under a clean install of Windows 7 - with all drivers and updates completed, the Win8 Boot disc will not even load allowing an upgrade install (hands also).

However - the stock 32GB Sandisk SSD performed the Windows 8 install without any issues, and allowed driver updates and Windows Updates to occur - never once crashing, hanging or making the OS unbootable.

I can only deduce that the Hardware/Driver of the Intel SSD is the root cause of the issue. Right now, WIndows 7 is performing with no issues on the same Tablet device with the installed Intel 310 series SSD. I also installed 4GB of RAM (replacing 2GB stock) - however memtest and other diagnostics proved there was no Win8 issue with the RAM.

Can you please confirm;

A. If you have any suggested driver updates or fixes for this issue and/or

Intel Australia(?) have now raised a trouble ticket on this matter - after I called them today. A very helpful technical customer service person has advised they will report back to me on this ticket and their findings.

I, too, went back to the stock drive and it worked flawlessly. The lack of response from Intel will solidify my commitment to never purchase another intel drive again... once bitten, twice shy. Thanks for the post, Sheeds.

"We did a simulation in our laboratory using Windows 8 consumer build and a solid state drive on an Intel based system. Was able to successfully installed the operating system and Windows update without encountering the said issue. Since Windows 8 is not yet officially release, we are not able to investigate further, perhaps we can wait for the official release to further investigate in case the issue persist. Hope the above information clarify. Again, thank you for bringing this matter to our attention."

I have asked;

A. Did they test the mSATA 310 series drive (not a regular SATA drive)?

B. Have they tried it on an ARM CPU based tablet system - NOT an intel system as they reported above?

Not sure their simulation was ever going to give us answers if NO to either of the above!

"Our testing shows the compatibility you've mentioned is not with Intel SSD and Win8 but also including AMD-based chipset, this would need to be further investigated upon official release of Windows 8."

So it's the combo of Windows 8 and the AMD chipset/CPU which is causing incompatibilities with the Intel 310 series mSATA SSD! Damn.

Thanks, Sheeds. At least that shed some light. I'll likely use the stock drive for the time being and I'm sure by the time they get around to fixing the issue, mSATA drives will be dirt cheap and I'll be getting a bigger drive that's NOT Intel :-).